Digital online exchange for pricing items to exhaust inventory by an expiration time

Abstract

A dynamic pricing system for pricing items for sale by a seller which items are available in a limited quantity comprises a pricing server and various types of data stored in memory. The pricing server includes memory, a processor and a clock. One type of data stored in memory is indicative of the initial quantity of an item available in a limited quantity. Another type of data stored in memory is indicative of the current remaining quantity of the item available in a limited quantity. Yet another type of data stored in memory is indicative of an expiration time at which it is desired that all of the item available in a limited quantity be sold. The processor is configured to price the item available in a limited quantity so as to deplete the inventory of the item available in a limited quantity by the expiration date based in part by accessing the memory to retrieve the data indicative of the initial quantity, the current remaining quantity and the expiration time and accessing the clock.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 737,574, filed Apr. 19, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 422,546 filed Jun. 6, 2006 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 084,777, filed Feb. 27, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,030) which claimed the benefit of commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 272,130, filed Feb. 28, 2001, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 310,381, filed Aug. 6, 2001, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND [0002] The present invention generally relates to purchasing systems, and more specifically, but not exclusively, concerns a sales system adapted to dynamically price goods and / or services over a computer network. [0003] With the recent explosion in Internet commerce, the amount of stolen or pirated content has been on the rise. Encry...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004] Due to their popularity, the P2P swapping services, like Napster and Gnutella, have dramatically increased network loads of institutions where such services are extremely popular, like colleges and universities. To combat the increased network loads, universities have denied students access to such services across their networks. Thus, these services are severely hampered in contacting an extremely desirable demographic of consumers, students.

Problems solved by technology

With the recent explosion in Internet commerce, the amount of stolen or pirated content has been on the rise.

Current intellectual property laws are not comprehensive enough and have not quickly adapted to cover this developing technology.

Since intellectual property rights vary internationally, enforcement of those rights across national boundaries can be difficult.

Although suits against P2P providers, such as Napster, have been successful, the cost and time involved in achieving a successful result can be prohibitive.

This decentralized approach makes it nearly impossible to shutdown such systems since there is no central operator to target for suit.

Pursuing legal remedies against individual users who break copyright laws only antagonizes the public further and creates further animosity towards the recording, movie, software and publishing industries.

Thus, these services are severely hampered in contacting an extremely desirable demographic of consumers, students.

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